War time entertainment

ENSA tickets 1939-1945

This is a page from a scrapbook kept by an actor, Jimmy Grant Anderson, working for Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) during World War II. ENSA sent shows to all parts of the world where troops were stationed.

This scrapbook includes souvenirs from Italy, Malta, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Gibraltar, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, India, Malaya and Burma. The tickets and postcards on this page are from Italy. There is an entrance ticket for an exhibition in the Palazzio Venezia, Rome as well as two tickets for the show itself, held in the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) theatre. (The NAAFI is the organisation that provides shops, clubs, bars, and restaurants for the British armed forces on every base where they are stationed.) The two postcards are of Cassino, south west of Rome. On the hillside behind the town is the medieval monastery of Monte Cassino that was bombed in 1944.